Experiments and The Doing Project

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/01/31/1226258/778215-groceries.jpg
Hypothesis

People do the activity of grocery shopping everyday whether it is a weekly shop or only for a few items. It's a time consuming task we all have to do at some stage of the week that is a necessity. To understand how people use shopping trolleys and shopping baskets, We will be doing an experiment with the trolley by adding card board sections to see how people's behave and react with this change. We will focus more on trolleys rather than baskets.

We expect to see the particular habits individuals have while interacting with these throughout their shopping experience in supermarket. We believe some people will find it helpful  to organize their groceries while shopping and makes easier for them to unload at the checkout.




Recap on Discoveries


Short Survey We Conducted 

• From a short survey we conducted, a large proportion of people preferred to have sections within their trolley as they said it would make it much more easier to unload their trolley at the checkout, with less effort of having to go through and organise all their groceries. 
• Most people said they would like a cooler section to keep all their cold/frozen items in a 'cooler section' eg. their milk, yoghurt, meat, fish fresh during their shopping trip. 
• Mainly elderly people found the height of the trolley a concern because this caused them to bend down into the trolley when unloading as well as placing items into the trolley 
• Some people intuitively separated their non-food items (cleaning chemicals etc.) from the fresh and packaged foods.  
• A few people suggested to get rid of the dollar coin, they found it unnecessary and annoying to have.

• We also discovered while conducting our survey some people suggested to add a specific section or product that could be used to place their handbag. 

Recap on Discoveries 

• From our past observation, we found out that majority of people place their shopping randomly in the trolley.

• We also noticed that some people put their cleaning products next to their foods and suddenly they realize and moved it aroundr.

1

2

3

4

• Some people separate their fragile items from heavy ones. By placing their fragile items such as bread and eggs in the provided child's seat or place them in the front section of the trolley. They also put light items such as crackers, biscuits or sponge cake on top of heavier items such as canned foods, soft drink bottles etc.  

Here is our Experiment in Woolworths QV

Process of How We created Our Sections for the Shopping Trolley

Method :

• We divided the exisiting trolley in to 5 different sections using cardboard  
• We made a small section at the top next to the trolley's handle. The aim of this section is for fragile products such as bread, eggs or crackers
• We made all four sections in different sizes. Two of them are big ones and the rest are smaller ones eg. the bigger sections will be used to put fresh foods, milk, heavy item etc. 

http://youtu.be/mZOuXEjlYDY

In this experiment, We asked the volunteer to utilise the trolley however they liked while shopping. We did not in anyway influence the decisions made during this experiment. 

Observation of our experiment :

Person 1

• The person separated her fragile products at the top section
• The person seperated her cleaning poducts with foods. She put the cleaning products at the lower part of the trolley (the basket)
• The person placed vegetables and fruits at the back left side
• The person put all the frozen products at the front right side and she claimed it will be her cold section. She said she needs cold section because she does not want her frozen things melt before she goes to the check out
• She placed the magazine and all general products at the front left side. She mixed all non-dangerous things in the same place 

Person 2

• The user instantly used the top section to place bread and eggs 
• Fruits and vegetables was also placed into one section conveniently
• The user said they found the provided section very useful when it came to organising their grocery shopping 
• This user is very particular when it comes to organising their trolley load of groceries so they found it very beneficial especially when it came to unloading at the checkout 
• Also the user liked the fact that she could easily separate cleaning products from the food 

Conclusion : 
Our experiment was proven a success, below are our final findings: 

Before we began our shopping trip experiment 

The user instinctively dedicated a section for only the
fresh food items, in this case bananas and salad leaves
were placed

Instantly the user utilised the top section of the trolley to
place fragile items such as eggs 

The user first placed the heavy can of Milo besides the eggs

But then she realised the Milo is too heavy and  it might
damage the eggs

At the first time she wanted to put the cleaning products inside the
trolley but then she realised that the product should not be mixed with
foods. So she re-located it to the bottom section of the trolley.

She used the bottom section of the trolley (where we placed a shopping basket)
to put all the non-food items eg. cleaning products, laundry detergent etc. 

The user decided to use one of the sections as the 'cold section' this included
milk, yoghurt, frozen food, meats etc. 

Design Proposition

Manifesto: This is our proposed design to help solve the customers problem of organizing their items and products while they are doing their grocery shopping in the Supermarket as well as adding (as requested by the majority of customers) an extra compartment to place their personal belongings such as handbags etc.  

Final Design Proposition

This is our final proposed design to help solve the customers problem of organizing and separating their groceries during their shopping experience.

We have added colours to the sections for the customers to easily identify what each section signifies eg. green - fresh fruit and vegetables 

orange - for fragile/delicate items

blue - cold/frozen foods section 

red - for packaged foods and other items.

The large compartment at the bottom of the trolley is where all the non-food items are placed such as all cleaning products and other miscellaneous items.